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só no dia seguinte. Os homens seguiam descalços para o patíbulo, mas não as mulheres, e
eram todos acompanhados e amparados por capelães e irmãos das misericórdias, que depois
os enterravam e lhes faziam os sufrágios. As misericórdias portuguesas obtiveram também o
privilégio de proceder anualmente ao enterro dos despojos dos condenados a terem os corpos
ou parte deles expostos no local do suplício. Faziam-no em cerimónia religiosa solene no dia de
Todos os Santos. Assim sendo, os cadáveres (ou as cabeças e as mãos) dos supliciados regressa-
vam ao seio da comunidade cristã, usufruindo de todos os ritos e sufrágios normais.
Salvo a marquesa de Távora, que foi decapitada, as outras mulheres morreram na forca,
como plebeias que eram. Houve ainda duas sentenças de morte por garrote, uma aplicada à
ama dos expostos em 1772 e outra prevista em 1811 para D. Isabel de Lemos. Quase todas
morreram sem suplícios prévios, pois só três mulheres sofreram tormentos por terem come-
tido crimes considerados particularmente hediondos: uma escrava que matou o senhor e foi
atenazada em 1725 e duas outras mulheres que, além da tenaz em brasa aplicada pelo corpo,
tiveram as mãos cortadas em vida, ambas em 1772. Tratava-se da serial killer dos meninos
enjeitados e de uma escrava que assassinara o seu senhor, tendo-se cumprido a lei do reino que
estipulava o atenazamento e o corte das mãos em vida para escravos que matassem os seus
donos ou filhos (Ordenações Filipinas, Liv. V, Tit. 41, pr).
Era mais vulgar recorrer a penas infamantes mas não dolorosas, através de mutilações
nos cadáveres para que uma parte, quase sempre a cabeça, ficasse exposta na localidade do

women were not. Both would be accompanied and succoured by chaplains and brothers of mercy
who later buried them and prayed for their souls. The Portuguese orders of mercy also held the
privilege of being annually permitted to bury the remains of those whose corpses or body parts
had been exposed at the place of execution. They did this every year at a solemn ceremony on All
Souls’ Day. In this way, the corpses (or heads and hands) of those executed returned to the bosom
of the Christian community and were entitled to all the usual rites and prayers.
Except for the Marchioness of Távora, who was beheaded, all women were hanged as
the commoners they were. There were also two sentences of death by garrotting, one applied
to the foster mother of foundlings in 1772 and the other handed down to Isabel de Lemos in
1811. Almost all of them died without prior torments, as only three women were tortured for
having committed crimes considered particularly heinous: a slave who killed her master and
was tortured with pincers in 1725 and two other women who as well as having red-hot pincers
applied to their bodies had their hands cut off while still alive, both in 1772. These were the serial
killer of foundling babies and the slave who killed her master, in compliance with the law which
dictated that slaves who killed their owners or their owners’ children should have pincers applied
to them and their hands cut off while still alive (Ordenações Filipinas, Book V, Chapter 41).
More frequently, penalties inflicting infamy rather than pain were applied, such as the muti-
lation of corpses so that body parts, almost always the head, could be exhibited at the scene of
the crime or at the gallows. Fifteen women received such sentences, but they were only applied

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